Ignorance as plurality: Feminist approaches to epistemologies of ignorance

Abstract

The paper focuses on critical consideration of the various categorizations of the concept of ignorance, with a specific reflection upon feminist categorizations of this concept. During the last ten years, an independent area of inquiry has been developed which goes by the name of agnotology or the epistemologies of ignorance. Its object of inquiry is the concept of ignorance, which was generally seen in the canonical epistemology as the negation of knowledge, deficient knowledge, or not-yet knowledge. Therefore, the primary challenge that agnotology faces is to try to define and categorize ignorance. The paper presents an analysis of ignorance as an autonomous concept, which is, like knowledge, socially situated, and which, besides maintaining the oppressive system, can also serve as a means of resistance.

Tema ovog rada jeste kritičko promišljanje različitih kategorizacija pojma neznanja, sa posebnim osvrtom na feminističke kategorizacije ovog pojma. Tokom prethodne decenije razvija se oblast koju jedna grupa teoretičara naziva agnotologijom, a druga epistemologijama neznanja. Predmet istraživanja ovih teorija jeste pojam neznanja, koje je u kanonskoj epistemologiji uglavnom bilo viđeno kao negacija znanja, defektno znanje, ili ne-još znanje. Stoga je i prvi izazov sa kojim se agnotologija suočava pokušaj da neznanje definiše i kategorizuje. U radu se pokazuje kako je neznanje autonoman pojam, da je, kao i znanje, društveno situirano i da osim uloge u održavanju represivnog sistema, može biti i sredstvo otpora.